Monkeypox

Actually scientists will tell you it's different and not as dangerous as alcohol, as will anyone with a background in neuroscience or pharmacology.

I'm gonna post the ones about guns!

No one's pretending it doesn't. But alcohol's effects are scientifically more pronounced. And it's legal. How would legalizing marijuana put more dangerous drivers on the road than legalizing alcohol did? You understand it's illegal to drink and drive, right? So I can only assume that, by this argument, you want to bring back prohibition, since it would take dangerous drivers off the road? Once again, I can only assume you want to bring back Prohibition. If not, you obviously ignore the importance of public safety and probably like it when some drunk dude in an SUV runs over a baby.

Most studies actually show that alcohol has a far more pronounced performance deficits and mood effects than marijuana does.

Your argument is based on lack of information. You can smoke enough to get buzzed without being completely stoned, just as you can with alcohol. And, yes, people do it all the time. I've got more friends that are functional potheads than functional alcoholics, actually. Drinking til you're drunk and driving is against the law. Smoking pot is against the law. People still do both. It isn't that suddenly weed smokers (who already engage in an illegal activity) are going to be out there on the road. They already are. They're equally dangerous, despite the differences in their physiological impairment. I DO know this - no one I've ever known has died of marijuana poisoning. And, again, all of this is irrelevant to whether or not someone should be punished for breaking the law.

50% of the people might think weed should be legalized, but they're not willing to make that a prime factor when voting. The laws on marijuana might be stupid or draconian, but nobody cares enough about them to get them changed. And so, as a candidate, having that as part of your platform is going to alienate 50% of the populace for a potential 50% that doesn't care to vote on this issue anyway. Political suicide. All of these arguments are irrelevant, though, because the simple fact of the matter is... it's still illegal. People know this. These football players knew this. If you choose to still take part in the distribution of it, then you deserve the consequences. That's it. I always wonder how politically active those are who challenge the laws on these things. I wonder about their voting records. Have they called their Representative? Written e-mails and letters? Organized a march? And I believe it should be legalized... but, again, I'm not going to vote based on that issue. And I'm not going to say, when someone gets arrested for breaking the law, that we should disregard the law because it's dumb. It's not like it's a SECRET law.

There are a number of laws that I think are stupid. I still don't break them, though, because they're illegal and I have more to lose than to gain from it. It's not tough. At such time as the pro-legalization/decriminalization crowd becomes the rational, intelligent, money-wielding votes that the folks in Congress want, it'll happen. Until that day, however.... Full disclosure: My brother is a police officer. I disagree with him on the basic dangers of marijuana, but not on him arresting and charging people committing the crime. Against the law is against the law. I've deserved every speeding ticket I ever got, too.

Originally, my studies were in Zoology/Biology (this is where I was focused at TAMS). I studied Psychology and Cognitive Science early Post-TAMS while I burnt out. My FINAL degree was in Art/Computer Graphics and English/Creative Writing. I graduated with such exciting and useless electives as Calculus 2 and Physics: Electricity and Magnetism. I have worked as an: Information Broker, Library Technician, Environmental Management Technical Writer, Screenwriter, Actor, Script Supervisor, Script Doctor, Graphic Artist, Managing Director of Medicare Billing, and this one time I helped roof my brother's house. They don't put me in the TAMS brochure.

Having been there, I'll tell you that very few if any students in TAMS have a desire or interest to go to North Texas and stay there. You consider it another high school, a stepping stone on the way to something greater. I remember my first week there WAS a concerted effort to get us all to Fouts for the home opener. I went to every game there for the remainder of my studies. BUT, you're effectively sequestered in McConnell Hall, you're not socializing with regular University students for legal and age-related reasons, and you're taking between 15-18 hours of advanced classes at the ages of 15-18. Quite simply, you're not easily part of the greater university in a lot of respects. I had 6 schools on my list and North Texas wasn't one of them. However, after being there and in Denton, and really learning more about myself than I could in a regular high school, I rejected 2 top offers and stayed at UNT. It happens, but it's EXTREMELY rare. I was always one to march to the beat of my own drummer. Quite frankly, at TAMS, you're in the top fraction of a percent academically. If given the option of those schools that are also in that top percent, that's who you will choose. If you want more students to stay from TAMS, you have to convince them (and in many cases, THEIR PARENTS) that the school they've been planning on since the 5th grade isn't the best fit for them. You don't sit there when taking the ACT in the 7th grade and think "SOME DAY, I HOPE TO GO TO NORTH TEXAS!" You don't look at Stanford and MIT's rankings in Engineering and arbitrarily include an unranked program at North Texas. On top of that, at least when I was there, as a TAMS student, you're automatically qualified for the scholarship that A&M and UT Austin provide to those that finish in the top 10% of their class. Which means if you include one of those schools in your application process, you're guaranteed acceptance and an academic scholarship. Both of those schools at the time were higher ranked in my chosen fields of study (and likely still are). This is just the reality - what the University is up against when it comes to getting TAMS students to stay. Just appreciate what they can accomplish in their time here, and hope for more oddballs like me.

Because as a CB you're running in a backpedal, and it's more important for you to have quick hips and quick backwards sprint and turn ability. These are simply harder to achieve with longer leg length (though not impossible). For a lot of taller guys, in order to accomplish this sort of running, they have to bend too much to keep the backpadal compact, which will slow it down. Also, if you're tall and fast and have decent hands, your coach is putting you at wide receiver. If you're short and fast, you're put at defensive back. And I'm talking peewee, Jr High level... early on. So partly, it's just development. If two athletes are exactly the same, but one is 6'3" and one is 5'10", they're putting the 6'3" guy at WR, and the 5'10" guy at DB. But it's a combination of these things. The backpedal has to be compact, and you have to be developed there.

If only one can be done, I'd put my money in Fielder, personally. And that's saying that I'm not opposed to Hamilton long-term, because the ONLY thing I feel working against him is his injury history. Skillset-wise, he can be an outstanding ballplayer for a long long time. But I doubt the money will make sense. And when people talk about decline, they need to understand that the guy is already out for months at a time every year. But you also have to look at this: These guys' contracts don't exist in a vaccuum. You've got Kinsler, Young, Cruz, Hamilton, Napoli whose contracts are coming up in the next few years. Within that time frame, your pitchers will also start going to arbitration and/or getting raises. You have to COMBINE inexpensive, young talent along with your veterans if you want to keep a window open. I'd love to see Prince Fielder here because he's one of my favorite ballplayers. Also, then I can see him hit jacks against CJ Wilson more than once a year. Not to be forgotten in "Ways CJ Wilson Contributed to Our World Series Loss Last Year" is the 3-run bomb he gave up to Fielder in the All-Star game, sealing our fate as the away team. But not at any price. And not at the expense of retaining or paying 2 or 3 other people.

ON HAMILTON/FIELDER: Josh Hamilton's already incapable of giving you more than 130 games a season. I think his talent will hold up, but they've already had to diminish his overall value by moving him from CF, and likely will only further do so. I don't worry a whole lot about Prince Fielder's body, because he's actually pretty athletic for his size and it's more of a body type, IMO, than him just being a fat tub. That said, Big Papi is 36 and built like a dump truck, but he's still managed to be successful into his mid-to-late 30s, outside of one down year. People act like Cecil dropped off a cliff at a certain age, but, when you look back, Cecil's numbers were inconsistent and he was a mostly hollow power threat for his career anyway. In short, he never approached Prince's numbers to begin with, so he didn't really have that far to fall to be less than valuable. NOW, the reality is with both Prince and Josh, it comes down to value for the Rangers. It's unlikely that either one of them, in the Rangers mind, will give you a good price/performance ratio over the long-term. ON YU/CJ: The Rangers looked at CJ and said "He's 31, not an ace, and going to command a lot of dollars." In the end, it wasn't JUST that CJ performed poorly in the playoffs. It's that, if you're going to spend the money, at least spend it on a guy who COULD be an ace for you. CJ didn't go to LAAAAA to anchor the staff. He went there to be the #3 guy. So that's how they see Darvish. They see a guy who's younger, has a better physique and mechanics than most of his predecessors, and is a relentless worker. A guy with the STUFF and poise to potentially be an ace. That's the gamble the Rangers are taking. CJ wasn't going to be an ace. Yu could be. Compared to Matsuzaka, he's bigger, has a better repertoire, and likely won't gain 20 lbs of pure fat before he ever shows up on our shores. I try not to compare NPB numbers, if only for the fact that, even BEFORE they changed balls in 2011, hitting has always been behind pitching in that league. And particularly as you start looking at the last 5 years or so, offensive numbers have been on a pretty steady decline there. And that's really where the concerns come from. You watch the scouting videos and you see a lot of swings and misses out of the zone. The stuff is filthy, but your top half of MLB hitters aren't going to swing at them at all. It comes down to the SCOUTING belief that he can cut down on his repertoire and command his pitches within the strike zone.

Yeah, the Cowboys suck, and are unlikely to become a well-run franchise as long as there's a Jones at the helm, which will probably be the rest of my lifetime. Oh well. However, it took the death of Peyton Manning to allow Houston to make any noise... and that noise was from the 10 fans left in Houston after they killed the Oilers. Granted, 10 Houston fans blow enough hot air to launch a thousand zeppelins, but it is what it is. Never heard anyone crow so much about winning a single playoff game... against the Bengals (the 3rd place team in their own division). Houston played in a terrible division and got bounced from the playoffs the second they played a real contender. I guess that's like winning the Super Bowl for them. Congratulations?

This. Also, I'd give that OC Mike McCoy a serious vote for League MVP if I could. As long as he agreed to thank the craptastic West in his acceptance speech. The guy's managed to get production out of Delhomme, Orton, and now Tebow.

He's not getting a short sentence. This is a major drug charge. His best bet for a short-ER sentence is ratting out his cohorts, at this point, and even then, it's gonna be a stint. And, the NFL isn't going to welcome him back with open arms. You wanna know why? Because he's not a money-maker. He's a special teams player/4th or 5th WR. He's not Michael Vick or Big Ben or heck, even Dante Stallworth. Yes, he's no Stallworth. Season high receptions? 19. Season high TDs? 1. He's too replaceable. NFL teams will take a black eye for a money-maker. Sam Hurd is a nobody.

He better be careful. Unlike at SMU, Craig James' KILLING 5 HOOKERS WHILE AT SMU hobby will get him in trouble in the Senate.

No, by surrounding them and telling them they (the police) weren't going to be allowed to proceed with their arrest without a show of force. It's laid out in about 30 minutes of video I've watched, and they say it pretty clearly. They WON'T let the police do their job without a show of force, and they got it. But I'm done on the subject. I've been pepper sprayed, been on both sides of crowd control, seen people trampled. There are few on this board that have the knowledge and experience to judge what happened there. Military and police experience is a likely prerequisite. The police were given few options - physically pick up and arrest the people committing obstruction (already with detainees) or pepper spray them. The police were doing their job. The protesters were breaking the law, were asked to stop, were warned of the consequences, SAID THEY WERE OKAY FACING THOSE CONSEQUENCES, and then received them. Got what they want. Now that I feel sick for having to agree with the righties on something - That Rick Perry is retarded.

It's not even a request to move a few feet. The protestors surrounded the police in an order to prevent them from passing, unless they agreed to release those they'd already arrested. So this isn't a first ammendment issue. It's an issue of obstructing the police. The protestors attempted to incite a violent response, and the police, instead of arresting more people or removing them by physical force, pepper sprayed them.

I would say the tragedies did have an effect on recruits/students in the years immediately after those tragedies. I'm pretty sure a senior visiting a campus and seeing a makeshift shanty-town in its midst probably wouldn't consider it a positive. Also, I think saying that this incident is a concern because it validates a political position would also have to come with an admission that the UC Davis is only news for the same reason, that some people feel it validates their view of police. Otherwise, it reeks of hypocrisy, IMO.

Who knew? (hint: no one)

Ever gotten a speeding ticket?

That.

So you'd be betting on yourself to lose your bets. And you've never won a sports bet. So I think I'd need another bet to bet against you losing, because then you'd be winning. Wait... I mean, what constitutes winning again?

Worst. Sports. Moment. Ever. Til tomorrow, anyway.

The problem with the idea that they're "cheating" is that there's no such thing. They're paying politicians to change the rules of the game for them. Again, if I had the money and power to "cheat" as much as the big banks do/are doing, hell yes I would. As my parents were always fond of reminding me "life ain't fair." Now, I'm not defending the POLICIES that take place on Wall Street or within companies, but they have to have INCENTIVE not to cheat, and the only places that can come from are the public (through their wallets) and the government (through legislation). But the hypocrisy of this movement, and most movements, comes the second you want to convert money into "voices heard." That makes you a lobby, and the problem stems from... lobbies. Because I'm ONE GUY who forms my own opinions and political leanings. I don't have a group of like-minded folks with a ton of cash to agree with me on every issue, so I'd have to stand on a street corner or march to Washington alone, which pretty much just makes me a random crazy guy with a guitar (I'm assuming I'd learn guitar somewhere in here). So then to get heard, I really need a group. The second you find a GROUP, well, then you have to adopt some ideas you don't necessarily agree with, because no two people think exactly alike. And besides, to get voices heard, the more the merrier. That's how party lines are formed. I mean, Monkeypox is pro-abortion, pro-nudity, anti-anti-smoking, and wants vehicles more than 14-ft long reserved only for commercial use, but this group is only in agreement on 75% of those things, and, within the makeup of the group, only me and finger-toe Sally agree on all of the exact same ones. But, regardless, we're now a group, with our official stances... we'll call ourselves the Monkeypoxicans. So now, I've got myself a group of sorta like-minded individuals, but nobody cares. We gotta get backed by money (which comes, somewhere, from a value-added corporation). After all, we got mouths to feed and crappy cars to fix. We can't just take off and protest, or take a congressman to Chic-Fil-A on his lunch break. NOW I can get my voice heard by Washington. How? By hiring a lobbyist. We PAY a lobbyist to wear a fancy suit and go to dinner with politicians so they can flash around how much green we have and how, if this guy also believed in these things we semi-sorta-mostly agree on, then well, we could spend that green to help get him elected. So then we funnel our money into his campaign, and he gets to have a bunch of commercials and signs and posters telling you that HE'S FOR WHAT WE'RE FOR, which, after all, is mostly-kinda-sorta-semi what you're for. And you like his good teeth and hair, so, sure, seems like a good fit. Together, we've gotten our guy elected. Oh, and we also want to sterilize all male children under 18, and burn fat people for fuel. We just don't mention that in the campaign. We got our money from the good folks at Pfizer to give your young boys Depo shots. But don't worry, the money to pay for the shot will come out of a government fund paid for by your taxes... which is like free medical care. YOU'RE NOT PAYING PFIZER! THE GOVERNMENT IS! So now you're sitting on your couch with your sterilized middle-school boy wondering "How the f- did it get like this?" And, while it's cool you've got a nice, 18-yr-old model-wife to replace that old one, you're upset about things, bc your kid's pretty sad. And THIS GUY isn't really YOUR GUY. Hell, he's not even REALLY Monkeypox's guy. SO you take the next logical step... you protest Pfizer. But celebrate, gentlemen (and gentle-ladies), the Dow's up 300 points today.